treasured wisdom; whose love was single, deep, and never-failing! A Wife! a Husband! what heart hath words to tell of these? The love of such can ever die! What have they done since they departed from our midst? How much they'll have to tell of all the wondrous sights in store-of Love, of Beauty wandering through Space immeasurable! And we,-what shall we tell to them? That with us nothing had changed, for as they'd left us so we'd left the world-the only world we had to think about-the same! no progress, nothing but rather of the two a Retrogression ! Ah, Haini lives, her name, her love, herself must ever live!'

Living Beauty looked around. 'Poor little Maude !' I mused, 'doth no one speak to thee? I'll speak to thee! But Maude was proud-Trevosa's race were noble; she had her work to do among the silent and the dead! All those stout hearts had left them, preferring to battle with the wild elements than invade a sanctuary.

First she addressed the living. Oh, darling!' she said, taking a little hand in hers, 'had I but come to you, or only written!' Fresh sobs came forth amid the silence of the cave, their sole accompaniments being the dropping of the water on the surface of the still pool, mingled with the boom of the waves reverberating throughout its gloomy recesses.

To the dead she next approached; kissing her marble brow and lips, she wept aloud these words, 'My sweetest sister! thou art with me ever, and I am ever with thyself!' Again she kissed her, hanging around her neck. The calm tranquillity of that scene impressed me far above the roar of angry elemeuts. I had seen nothing to equal it in other Spheres.

She now drew near a third, she alone with nerve and courage left of all within the cave, save one. She forced a stimulant down a dry, parched throat; his mind was wandering; he gasped excitedly :

I'll take it! Have you another? Do you sell?-yourselves along with it, you know! I'll buy the markets-fifty marketsnow ten more! You know the bargain, mind-heavy “BACK.” You cheat, sir! Names-liar! Syndicate, panic,-curse! I put Fleasaway up to auction,-here goes! Whoever bids shall have it. First one; what, no bidders? I'm a bear — I'm a bear-I'm a bear-a bear—a bear-a bear-bear-bear-beI-no "cornering !" "

Now he moved and groaned heavily, and after a while, amid the death-like stillness, chuckled:

'Oh, won't we have a jolly blow-up when the bubble bursts ! ha, ha! They're sold to the dev-' He stopped. The silence now was awful.

Little Maude raised her hand; her lips moved in prayer, 'Oh, Heaven! remove this curse !'

'Remove for what?' I breathed; 'a death or two—a faint

She heard me. 'Stay, Spectre,' she cried; 'say not that word !'

I breathed, 'Is Maude alone?'

'Alone she said; 'oh, never, with the dead; and here are living, too!

I thought she seemed to sigh, as with relief, on pronouncing the last few words.

I breathed, Brave little Maude !'

She sadly said, 'Nay, Spectre, 'tis the curse of which I am thinking. A rose; a—'

I breathed, A blighted-'

'Stay' she cried vehemently. Just then a movement was heard close beside her. She sprang towards her. 'Birdie, my own-my own sweet child!' she sobbed; and throwing her arms around her neck, implored her, 'Speak, speak, my own one,—oh, Heaven!' The weirdest silence reigned throughout the cavern ; the droppings from the roof into the distant pool seeming to mock and heighten her agony, while the only words she now seemed capable of uttering were, 'My love; my darling love!'

Space may be motionless, and is; but there's a breathing in the azure sky, a motion, too, in nothingness,—a something stirring everywhere,-ay, much, as contrasted with that mute despair which fell on little Maude, as the wee fragile flower sank, e'en as she rose, upon her pillow of white sand in Grimmouth Cave.

'I heard her move,' sobbed the soldier's little daughter;' will she yet move again?'

A low moan escaped from one whom fortune had pressed hard that night. Maude tore herself away towards him. Beside the Soldier-gipsy knelt the woman who had first given him shelter. His wounds were long since stanched, and she was now applying healing balsams to them. Maude feels his pulse.

'No, no,' said she, 'no more brandy now;' and mixing aconite in water, puts it to his fevered lips. He drinks, and soon is fast asleep. She bathes his temples, old Peggy calling on God to bless her the while, and kissing her little hands as she gently

tends the Soldier-gipsy.

She turns and looks like one rapt.

A

strain of sweetest music vibrates along the vaulted roof, while a voice, clear and sweet like to an angel's, sings:

'By this good light, a wench of matchless mettle :
This were a leaguer-lass to love a soldier,
To bind his wounds, and kiss his bloody brow,
And sing a roundel as she helped to arm him.'

I flitted past them all into the open air. The storm was past. The brave Bluffshire hearts were gathered around the mouth of Beauty's cave. Suddenly I saw them start. I heard a crash! one loud, terrific wail resounded in the distant air, and all was still. 'Twas Geraldine's, and death with death was mingled!

She had refused to leave her lover; on his prostrate form she lay; a pistol was poised straight for Hugh's head, for he had vowed she ought to come to Justice! Her eye looked dangerous. Hugh had a wife and family. He had done enough for one brief night, and she was left to her accursed fate!

CHAPTER XXX.

'Foul deeds will rise,

Though all the earth o'erwhelm them to men's eyes.'-SHAKESPEARE.

ONE of my recollections of events which transpired on your little Earth is of so striking a character as to claim special notice in a short chapter to itself. When Hurkuleze was in the zenith of his power, and Todigrab could do pretty much as he pleased with other people's money, some little difficulty was apprehended as to the completely successful floating' of the second 'Backaway Loan.' The brokers to it therefore sent round to the Leading Bankers of the Great City of Undone a 'Confidential Communication,' offering them-a PERQUISITE― of one half per cent, on the amount of their subscriptions, to one of the greatest human flesh-and-blood-traffic swindles ever perpetrated in those far-off days of which I am speaking.

And of course it was floated!

' And when Rome falls,-the World.'-BYRON.

Part the Fifth.

CHAPTER I.

He who hath bent him o'er the dead,
Ere the first day of death is fled-
The first dark day of nothingness,
The last of danger and distress
(Before Decay's effacing fingers

Have swept the lines where beauty lingers)—
And marked the mild angelic air,

The rapture of repose that's there;

The fixed yet tender traits that streak

The languor of the placid cheek,
And-but for that sad shrouded eye,

That fires not, wins not, weeps not now,
And but for that chill, changeless brow,
Where cold Obstruction's apathy
Appals the gazing mourner's heart,
As if to him it could impart

The doom he dreads, yet dwells upon;

Yes, but for these, and these alone,

Some moments, ay, one treacherous hour,

He still might doubt the tyrant's power;

So fair, so calm, so softly sealed,

The first, last look by death reveal'd !'-BYRON.

IN a darkened room at Grimmouth Castle, the brave halfcaste girl Haini's aunt was weeping. Little Maude was saying,

'Tis but for a time; and then we all shall be with her again, dear aunt, and we shall part no more, unless we like, you know; and I shall never, never part from Haini. But, oh, I can be happy no more again without her!' cried she, with a passionate burst of tears-the first she had shed since that morning. All excitement being over, she at length gave way to the reaction produced by scenes so full of horror.

I passed into another chamber. Ralph and Birdie were kneeling by the side of a couch whereon now lay the beauteous Haini. Ralph was calm and self-possessed, but haggard. Birdie was paler than ever I had yet seen her. They were conversing in low accents; presently she said, 'Beloved Haini!' and kissed her forehead twice. They were then so still, and appeared so lost in thought, that I at once resolved I would leave them alone together, in the same way as everybody had left them when, down

in Grimmouth Cave, they had first become conscious of each other's presence; nor will I attempt to convey any impression whatever of the scene.

CHAPTER II.

'Oh, that the desert were my dwelling-place,
With one fair spirit for my minister;

That I might all forget the human race,

And, hating no one, love but only her!'-BYRON.

THE sun was fast declining. Soft fleecy clouds were sporting in wanton attitudes with outstretched arms, to bid adieu to his departing light. The air seemed full of mirth and revelry. All, all seemed warm and bright; but there was a wildness in the winter air which seemed to shadow forth a storm. Cold came the night; the mild and even balmy air of day was gone, and frozen drafts of wind were circulating in its stead.

Wonderful for Sir Manfred Locock, he appeared unmoved. He had been travelling abroad, and was now in the highest of spirits. He had just taken a patent for conveying all the smoke of Undone city under ground, and free of cost, to a region then known as the Isle of Puppies, where it was to fructify, and, in the course of centuries, produce prodigious wealth. The End-ofall-Smoke Company' was his; and he had been explaining to Miss Kureous that, in order to fortify his mind and body to resist all innovations on his patent, he had found it necessary to take a Far Countree tour; where, mixing with men (and women), he had hoped to imbibe a sort of energy which, if not innate, should prove a Second Nature.

Sir Manfred Locock was in great glee on another account. He was to preside at a Monster Meeting in Loud Park on the morrow; and Lady Beatrice and Ralph Osborne were at present guests of his !

All scenes were now over, and the Spectre was very glad of it, but sometimes they necessarily occur. Every one had, however, in this instance, allowed some rather touching ones to come off without intruders. Explanations had been gone into, and a calm appreciation of all the wonderful circumstances attending the deliverance of one, and of the safe reunion of two of the most devoted hearts that ever yet swelled with heartfelt gratitude, had been duly arrived at. Maude had handed over all the